The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-05-15
EARTHQUAKES.
Those Of the Wild West Do Less Dam
age Than Those of the Effete East.
From the NeU York sun.

ago 4Lt5u 1AOS6 Vi LIl6 Gu0U0 EtSL.
From the Nea0 York Sun.
The earthquake superiority of the Pacific
coast, threatened with eclipse by the per-
formances of the Charleston earthquake,
is again assured. The new earthquake dis
trict has won no very enviable distinction;
but as it is distinction that can be more
cheaply carried where population is sparse,
it is well that the West should have the
honor. If the crust of the continent will
do all its settling in the Territories for
few years to come, and hide all attendant
pyrotechnic displays in their mountain fast
neSses, the old settlements will make no
complaint.
But the performances of the far West in
the way of earthquakes are by no means re-
markable We have heard great deal
about them, and perhaps had population
been more dense in that section the record
might occasionally have received a more
tragic emphasis. But the earthquakes of the
Pacific coast have really accomplished very
little during the period of recorded historical
events; and when we come to look up their
! record we are compelled to admit, with a
feeling of some disappointment, that they
are no great shakes after ALL
In the first place we find that between the
year 1863. when the first missionaries began
penetrate into the region now known as
ton made of any earthquake whatever, not
even so much as a tremor. This is some
what remarkable, since earthquakes, even
OF the mlldest manners, are apt to make
| record for themselves wherever they go.
We are bound to conclude, therefore, that
during the first thirty years of Pacific coast
history either the good fathers or the earth
| must have slept very profoundly. Proba-
bilities favor the notion that the profound
sleeper must have been the earth.
But after the year 1900 there seems to have
been an awakening. The earth became per-
turbed. An unquiet spirit seemed to be
moving from its centre to its circumference,
and this spirit began finally to materialize
itself in surface manifestations The mission
houses of Southern California began to rest
unsteadily on their foundations At last, in
the year 1872, the mission church of San
Juan CapistranO, in Los Angeles county,
came tumbling down on the heads of large
number of the worshiping congregation, and
many persons were killed At the same mo-
ment, or as soon thereafter as an earthquake
could reach point 100 miles distant, the
mission church of Purissima, in Santa Bar
bara county, shared the same fate and with
precisely similar consequences. Timing its
movements to these events, the sea
also, in the neighborhood, retreated far out
from its shores, and, having gathered force
1t returned in a roaring succession of great
waves that went laundering inland until
they broke down against the impregnable
hills This finished the manifestations for a
! time, or at least seems to have so far broken
the back of the subterranean demon, that
he had no strength left to produce anything
| more startling than an occasional shake,
which, from its feebleness could be product
i've of no greater disaster than a panic
Down to the year 1850, although there were
unquestionably shakes, at intervals not too
HI
Importance occurred to take place in gen
eral history. The manifestations of I'M
steadiness in the globe were only sufficiently
violent to keep alive scientific interest in
the subject.
Since 1850 a close record has been kept,
and we know precisely how many times
California has been shaken, in whole or in
part, and, while it must be admitted that
the occasions have been frequent enough to
give the San Francisco Academy of Science
an apparently endless theme for discussion,
and to make the institution seem like an
artlculate SelSmoneter, 1t cannot be said that
much harm has been done. In the year 1850
there were five shocks; in the year 1851 six,
one of which was severe enough to break
windows, throw down merchandise, and
cause the ships in the harbor of San Fran
cisco to roll heavily. In 1852, a year not
distinguished for the number of shocks, there
was one manifestation of sufficient VIC
lence to open mud volcano in the Colorado
Desert. In 1858 the number of shocks
reached total of fifteen, and some of the
number were severe. The year 1854 gavesa
total of II; 1855, II; 1856, IA; 1857, II; 1858.
s; 1859, same number, and 1860 a total of
only 3. One of these shocks, however, was
severe enough to ring church bells. Only
one shock startled California in 1861, and
the succeeding two years gave an expert
ence of only two and five respectively This
is "a fair Illustration of the frequency of
California earthquake shocks in these lat
ter years, and while it will be seen that they
come often enough to interfere with the
popularity of elevator buildings, they are
not by any means continuous, nor violent
enough to overcome the attractions of afine
climate for persons DESTROYS of settling.
But earthquakes are a source of consider
able entertainment in California. On Sept.
4, in the year 1866, a party were camping
on the Kern river, in the central portion of
the Sierra Nevada mountains. They had
been disturbed great deal during the night
by subterranean noises, but this was not
thought serious cause for uneasineSS. At
o'clock in the morning, however, there
came the crisis. The subterranean Inutter-.
ings swelled into a roar, tall trees were
swayed to and fro as though about to be
Frustrated, and large boulders were sent
tumbling down the sides of the cliffs in
They were obliged to decamp speedily and
seek more open ground stimulated in their
movements by a succession of shocks-forty-
one in the first hour by actual count. The
disturbances continued up to the morning
of Sept. 9, and at that time the sportsmen
had counted 500 shocks.
All parts of the Pacific coast seem to offer
very good fields for the study of seismic
phenomena if a student is DESTROYS Of OBJ
tanning his facts by actual observation. Is
anotsky Pass, in the Aleutian Islands, was
once navigable. 1t is not navigable now.
and the Captain who discovered that an
earthquake had been putting its antic
disposition on in the neighborhood nearly
lost his schooner in making the discovery.
Thanks TO the fact that America is be-
| lieved to have been the first continent up in
the early morning of creation, we have rea-
son to hope that the more violent disturb
ances of the eastern hemisphere will never
be paralleled on this side of the globe.
We are furthest on the road toward an equi-
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